


Memories(They Bring Back You)

by orphan_account



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Romance, Fix-It, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Foreshadowing, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Kind of Trauma, M/M, Miscommunication, POV Third Person Omniscient, Slow Burn, Tags May Change, Trust Issues, each chapter focuses on either Ephraim or Lyon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:13:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22147726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Seeing Lyon pass out on the floor like that. After all of the times he said how everything was a lie. He still helped him, but nobody knew If it was a bad choice or not...—Ephlyon slow burn fic about Ephraim slowly coming to realization of his feelings, both negative and positive__On hiatus
Relationships: Ephraim/Lyon (Fire Emblem)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 14





	1. I felt that all the hatred, was too powerful to stop

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone, if you are reading this that means you probably took an interest in this. Apologies if Ephraim is a little out of character, it’s mostly because he reminds me of an ex I had and I kinda based it off of him(?) but he’s still the same ol ephraim I hope!

It took multiple days of moving and riding through the continent, mainly due to that horses were scarce, but there were enough to escort the majority of the army that were actually fighting. They had finally made it to Grado castle, where they finally can end the war and defeat the one who had started it all, Emperor Vigarde. Prince Ephraim, the leader of the army, hoped that Lyon was alright and that he wasn’t hurt from this war, or even overwhelmed at all that was going on. 

Ephraim and the others were facing the entrance of the castle, the memories of him and Lyon were coming back to him. He remembered when his friend taught him about the five sacred stones of Magvel, each from the different kingdoms. He always relied on his friend for help in his studies, especially history. 

Before Ephraim could take a step into the castle, Myrrh went up to him, a worried expression was shown on her face. “Ephraim, I sense the darkness within these castle walls, the darkness is in the castle, I ensure you will be careful”

“I’ll be alright, and so will everyone else, Myrrh.” the prince wasn’t so sure if this was true, but he tried to be as calm as possible for the upcoming battle. He wasn’t so sure if it was the emperor’s doing that the war broke out, but he wanted to make sure of it first. 

“But, we must figure out the darkness inside the castle! Let’s go, everyone!!” Ephraim called before the “army” went into the castle and then the throne room. 

Both Ephraim and Myrrh entered the castle first, only to be confronted with Grado Soldiers, blocking the throne room. There was nothing they all could do but to fight their way through to defeat Vigarde “Okay everyone, we need to plow our way through the soldiers and get up to the throne room. As that’s where Vigarde, the one who started it, is” Ephraim called to the twelve people who were going to help them clear out the enemies. 

Lyon could hear Ephraim call to his army for battle as he stood next to his father; he didn’t want his friend to know what his true goal was. Nonetheless, he wanted Ephraim to fight his father and he hoped he would eventually find out what was really going on. 

Just then, a Grado soldier came into the throne room most likely to inform Lyon’s father. “Your majesty, enemy soldiers are headed into the castle,” they exclaimed. “Oh! Prince..” the soldier was cut off when he saw the Prince’s face. He looks really tired but an evil smile was shown upon his face; 

“Hi, What’s wrong, you look like you saw some horrid beast,” the voice of Lyon spoke “I would appreciate it if you didn’t look at me as if I was a horrid beast” 

The Prince spoke again, changing the subject “Did you say we were under attack? If so, I would like you to strike your foes with all your might,” Lyon tried his best not to hold back his voice when he spoke again. “Bring all of your weapons to bear on Ephraim. If that is acceptable, Father” he turned to his father; still silent but then finally spoke. 

“Do…. as he says,” Vigarde said, before becoming disturbingly silent once more. The Grado Soldier nodded “Right away, Your majesty!” then they went out to get ready for the attack. 

Lyon turned to his father; “Command Grado… Emperor Vigarde, and destroy Ephraim..” the smirk on his face slightly faded, but he made sure it was unnoticeable. Once again, Vigarde’s expression was unchanged; so Lyon knew he heard, so just like that. With that, the prince teleported to someplace where he can wait to confront Ephraim once more.

* * *

The fight took a long while, Ephraim had to walk most of the way there; and even when being transported by Tana to get closer there, it still took a lot of time to actually get into the throne room. He had to fight through many many mages and had to make sure he wasn’t heavily wounded when getting ready to take Vigarde down. When the time finally came, Ephraim got his lance Reginleif and attacked the emperor with all the energy he still had left in him. 

With the help of both L’arachel’s healing and Seth’s help to rescue him, Ephraim finally managed to defeat Emperor Vigarde in a few hits. When he finally fell, Ephraim breathed heavily for a few moments to regain his energy from all the fighting. 

When he regained his energy he finally shifted his focus back onto the emperor, he saw that he had disintegrated. He stepped back a bit, really trying to see if what he was seeing was real and that he wasn’t imagining it. 

“He… What is this? He disintegrated..” Ephraim said, a surprised and confused expression was written on his face. He didn’t know how or what caused this but he knew it wasn’t normal for a human to just disintegrate like that. 

Seth got off of his horse and examined the pile of dust shown in front of him, and L’arachel was just really curious to know who would do such a thing. 

“I see…” the troubadour thought about what happened for a moment, then continued. “Vigarde must have been already dead! Otherwise, he wouldn’t have disintegrated, somebody must have revived him with dark magic!!” She 

“This must be some sort of dark magic,” Seth sighed, as he crouched down; picking up particles of dust in his hand before dumping them back into the pile. “Regardless, though, the capital has finally been captured I will go patrol the castle to check if there are still some remaining soldiers” the red-haired man went back onto his horse.

“I will go with you, I’m sure Lyon is in this castle somewhere. I hope he’s alright…” Ephraim sighed before he went onto Seth’s horse and they rode until the went into a hall where they both saw Lyon standing there. 

“Oh hello, Ephraim” a demonic voice spoke out of Lyon’s mouth. “I have been waiting for you, it seems like you’ve already beaten my father. I assumed you would, you really are strong aren’t you?” An evil grin showed up on his dark yet tired-looking face.

“Lyon!! Is that you?” Ephraim asked confused as to if he was right given that Lyon looked different than he remembered. “Please tell me what happened to Grado! Why did they go to war? You must tell me what happened!!” He got off of Seth’s horse and took a couple of steps toward his friend.

Even when he took a step closer, Lyon stayed silent, not wanting to say anything to his own friend. “Come on, Lyon!! Please answer me! Why didn’t you stop your father, why did you just let him create chaos in Renais?” he tried his best not to cry, he was too tough to let himself cry. “Don’t tell me you are also caught up in all the madness!! Please just answer me already! You always told me when we were young that your father wanted peace!!” 

The prince of Grado finally spoke “I.. urgh” he hunched over for a moment trying to contain himself, before standing back up again. “Let me... tell you something, Ephraim.” he spoke again, his body shaking slightly “I have been wanting to do this for a very, very long time.”

“I will make the world MY plaything. Heck, I have been planning this my whole life! Why else would I befriend you and your sister? Did you truly think I would really want to be friends with you?” he scoffed “I wanted to know a perfect way to attack and destroy Renais. Our friendship was fake all along” 

“Lyon, we both know that’s not true! You never learned how to fight, it was never in you, I know you would never do that!”

“Oh, but- ack” Lyon was cut off by a pain in his head, doing what he could to breathe. “Ah! Urg! I..” he started feeling lightheaded and looked really pale. Before he could say anything else, he passed out. 

Ephraim gasped and immediately grew concerned. He ran up to his friend and went onto his knees, he felt really worried. “Lyon!! Oh, shit are you okay? Oh no, he’s passed out!” he then turned to Seth, who surprisingly was still there watching the scene that had happened just minutes before Lyon passed out onto the ground. 

“Seth! you go continue to patrol the castle, I’ll go take Lyon somewhere safe!!” Ephraim commanded. Seth nodded and went to continue patrolling. Ephraim looks down at Lyon for a moment “You’ll be alright, my friend…” he sighed before he picked up the prince and went to find a place to set him in. Lyon’s weight overwhelmed him a little but it was nothing he couldn’t handle. 

He eventually found Lyon’s room, the door was unlatched so he pushed open the door. But when he did, he saw that all of it was in tatters. Books everywhere scattered across the floor, the desk, and even on his bed. Shelves were empty and papers were ripped and scattered everywhere; the ones that weren’t ripped to shreds were in a big pile both on the floor and on the desk with multiple notes attached to it. 

Ephraim laid Lyon onto the bed and took some of the scattered papers that were not ripped to shreds, and tried to see if any of them were legible. He skimmed through the papers and found something about the dark stone. But before he could get a chance to read the other papers he grabbed, Seth came in and knocked onto the open door. 

“Prince Ephraim, we’ve found cells in the back, there were some captives. And one wishes to speak with you” Seth said. 

“Alright, I’ll go check in and see what they need” Ephraim replied, and he went to the back of the castle where the prison cells were. 

Ephraim saw a man in dark cloaks, he looked awfully hidden under all those robes. The man had a lot of dark faded blue robes and wore a hood to cover most of himself. The only thing that was really visible was his face and his hair. The robed man walked over to Ephraim, his gloved hands clutching the rusted bars before starting to speak in a low, quiet voice. 

“You’re Prince Ephraim, correct?” the mage asked “My name is Knoll, I am, or was a researcher for your friend Prince Lyon. Seth told me that Lyon had passed out and that you were taking him someplace safe” 

“Yes, that is true” the prince of Renais nodded before asking “Did something happen between you and him?” 

The dark mage sighed and then nodded “Yes, its a long story but, Emperor Vigarde had died from a terrible illness. With that, Prince Lyon was devastated, then-“ Knoll got cut off by Ephraim 

“But, Vigarde was the one who caused the war between Grado and Renais, did he not?” The taller male asked, awfully confused.

Knoll then took a heavy sigh “Allow me to continue as I was going to,” he huffed another breath before continued once more. “One year ago, Vigarde had died from a terrible illness that plagued him, and with that Lyon was devastated. He felt insecure about ruling without his father, so he did what he could to try and revive him.” 

“Wait, He wanted to revive him?” 

“Yes, as you know the Sacred Stone of Grado was used to seal away the demon king, we called it the Fire Emblem. Both he and a team of mages tried to harness the power inside, I remember he was so overjoyed when he learned he could use it to save the lives of others.” 

Knoll explained everything else that had happened and after that, he then asked: “Is Lyon alright? Where is he? Can you let me out? I wish to see him..” a Renais soldier then unlocked the cell and then Knoll got out. 

“Lyon is in his room, or what used to be that is…” Ephraim replied to Knoll’s question “I am not sure if he is alright or not, but I do hope he is after him suddenly passing out. I will show you where he is if you’d like.” the dark mage nodded and the two went to Lyon’s room. 

When entering the room, Lyon still passed out on his bed, Knoll felt his hand. Cold. “He seems to be still breathing,” Knoll said “But when he wakes up, I would like to warn you of what might come” 

“Alright, I’m listening” Ephraim replied before Knoll spoke again. 

“If he wakes up, please be careful, he could deceive you or try to break the other Sacred Stones. He broke the Stone of Grado so its best to not let him break the others.” the mage still holding onto Lyon’s hand, hoping it will move. 

“I promise you I will be careful, Knoll…” Ephraim says, before then turning to Lyon’s sleeping body “Lyon, my friend, I hope you’ll be okay…” 

He just waits for hours, sitting there, hoping the Grado Prince will wake. Its now night time and he is still just hoping he wakes. Knoll had already left to find something to wake Lyon up. He thinks about what Lyon had said to him after the fight with Vigarde. How he said that he was only friends with him and Eirika just so he could find the weakness of Renais and exploit its vulnerability. Or when he said that he never liked him or all of that crap. Yet, he didn’t believe it, he knew Lyon, he was his best friend, after all, so he reassured himself that it will all be fine. He will see Eirika again, they will return to Renais, and all would be good once the war ends.


	2. The Feeling I knew

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lyon wakes up, Ephraim is glad that his friend is awake. Yet Myrrh and Knoll is suspicious about what Lyon's motivations are.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, Chapter 2 is finally done!! I hope you'll enjoy this one <3

Ephraim was pretty tired, but he wanted to wait until his best friend woke up, even if it meant It grew awfully late in the night, so much to the point where he ended up assuming that Knoll had to have passed out of exhaustion. It seemed pretty likely given it was three in the morning and his mind was still not wanting to sleep and kept thinking of how Lyon was feeling.

To try and sleep he laid down on Lyon’s bed, trying to be as quiet as he could he slowly went to the other side of his friend and lay his body down to the soft mattress. Still propping his head up with his arm so he could see his Lyon. He didn’t care if Lyon noticed once he finally woke up, he didn’t really have any other choice but to sleep on the bed. 

He started to remember the events that happened a day ago, from the darkness Myrrh described being inside to castle. During the battle with Vigarde, to when Lyon spoke straight up evil in the hall with both Ephraim and Seth. Ephraim was trying to think if it truly was Lyon speaking those words. The words about where Lyon lied about being friends with him and Eirika, or when he scoffed about actually having a loving friendship with the two of them. 

Eventually he shook his head, trying to get the thought out of his mind. “No, no, its not right of him to just say that to my face,” he muttered quietly to himself. “I’m sure it wasn’t him, I’m sure it was the demon king like Knoll said…” he hoped he didn’t wake Lyon up while he was saying that, but he didn’t really pay attention to him. 

Finally Ephraim felt tired and decided to rest his head, as he slowly felt sleep coming to him, he slowly stroked through Lyon’s hair, thinking about what he would think if he woke up. He smiled a very tired smile, as he untangled his fingers through Lyon’s lavender hair. He sighed a tired sigh before finally drifting away into sleep.

* * *

The early morning came, and Ephraim was jolted awake from a movement of the man next to him. He didn’t think much of it at first, mainly because his head was still in a tired daze from not being able to sleep the night before. Eventually he rubbed his eyes and sat up and opened his eyes, Lyon was still asleep but it seemed like he was finally moving after so long. 

He looked around, checking his surroundings, and remembering that he was still in the room. Trying to be quiet he slowly got out of the bed, he felt a bit sore, although mainly because he slept in the clothes he just fought in. He let out a sigh as he got up and left the room to go change into something different. 

Once he changed into something more comfortable for him, he grabbed some cheese in the fridge from the castle’s kitchen. Then he toasted some bread, put it on a plate and put the cheese on the bread. Then went back into his friend’s room, relieved that nothing had happened when he left. 

He knew that since Knoll told him to be careful and to hope that , it was the least he could do to hope Lyon doesn’t do anything to fuck him up. He sat down, putting the bread and cheese down on the desk, hoping to not mess up any of the papers lying there. Finally taking a breath and then holding onto Lyon’s hand, he felt different, but not different to take a note upon Ephraim thought. 

He wasn’t really sure if he had to do much of anything today, but him mind was too focused on his friend’s health to really think about other things. Though he took an interest in all those papers regarding the dark stone and a cure for Vigarde, even though Knoll had told him most of the story. 

He picked up all the papers that were both on the floor and on the desk, avoiding all the torn and crumpled papers. He needed to clean the room anyway so he could actually walk without having to look down at the floor. 

He took each paper and put it in a stack, they were really out of order but Ephraim just wanted to read what those notes had said. Taking one out of the pile in his other hand, he skimmed the majority of the stuff he already knew but he did find a bunch of notes regarding a landslide that was going to happen at some point. And how Lyon was trying to do what he could to prevent it, he found an excerpt of what one page had said, must have been a journal that the Grado prince wrote in before it all went down. 

“A landslide will happen at some point in Grado, I don’t know what I should do, my father is dead and all I can do is use the Dark Stone. My Father didn’t want to me to talk to Ephraim and Eirika, he said that they wouldnt be able to help, I guess that might be true in some ways though-“ 

He looked away from the papers when he saw Lyon sitting up and finally speaking “Ephraim…?” he sounded very out of it, he still looked tired from how he was just a day ago. It took him a few minutes to see what Ephraim was doing. Before he felt a wave of wakefulness, stood up and took some of the papers from Ephraim’s hand. 

“What are you doing with those?” He asked with a slight snap in his voice, he still looked pretty tired on his face, but his body moved like it had just gotten an adrenaline rush. 

Ephraim was a little surprised at how fast Lyon took those papers from him, but he took a sigh, trying to calm himself a little before answering his friend. “You had them scattered all over the floor and desk when I walked into your room to make sure you were safe,” He replied. “You passed out on the floor while you were saying some harsh things to me” His face got a bit of a sad look at the thought of that. 

Sounding only slightly hesitant, Lyon tried to remember what had happened at that time. “I… don’t remember anything sadly, it was all a blur” he responded in a quiet voice as if to cover up something suspicious; “Regardless, I thank you for at least noticing that I had passed out,” He showed a small smile before speaking once more “Do you remember anything I said before I passed out?” He asked with a serious tone in his voice. 

Ephraim felt a little nervous about saying what the “other” Lyon had said to him, but since he was worried about his friend he decided to tell him. “I’m sure it wasn’t you, but you said that you never actually wanted to be my friend and that you only did to exploit the weakness of Renais.” 

Lyon sighed, “Well, I don’t remember saying such,” he admitted; “Just know that it wasn’t me who said that. It must have been something else..” he turned away after saying that. He looked over at the papers in his hand before crumpling them up and throwing them into a random direction. 

It took a few moments of silence for it to be broken by a door opening; a familiar figure walked into the room. “Prince Ephraim, is,,” he got cut off after seeing what was going on; “Oh, Your Majesty!! You’re awake” The man, Knoll said in a slightly cautious voice as he went into the room the others were in.

“Ah, Knoll” Lyon muttered in a quite voice; he didn’t really know what to feel when he saw the dark mage, he felt uneasy. Knoll always stood by his side and they both shared the same ideas, and yet he knew. He knew Knoll knew him well but he knew that if he said something out of the ordinary Knoll would know instantly. Sure, he knew Ephraim for longer yet but that was different; Knoll was different. 

Knoll sighed, seeing that Lyon was still really uneasy around him, “Well, I just came here to see if you were alright,” he said. “I am glad that you are well, I hope nothing had happened before you passed out” he was lying in those words he said; he knew that the dark stone must have caused it, otherwise what else would’ve made the Grado prince. There was no other option that would be a logical explanation in his mind. With that, he left the room seconds after he entered it.   
“Well, are you feeling any better?” Ephraim asked, trying to break the silence that engulfed the two princes for moments after Knoll had left. 

“I think I am, I can handle on my own, Ephraim” Lyon replied, showing a slight smile on his face reassuring his friend that he will be okay. “If you don’t mind though, would you be okay if I joined your team for awhile?” He asked. “I would like to be with you again; it’s been awhile you know?” 

For a moment, Ephraim couldn’t respond; he wasn’t sure if this was right. He thought about what knoll had said to him the night before; but he didn’t want to automatically think of Lyon as a threat especially since he seems alright as they were both speaking not that long ago. Then he answered “Yes, that’s alright, just make sure you try not to do anything to make the others uncomfortable” his replied sounded genuine but he was still truly worried about Lyon’s actions.

The other prince nodded “I will Ephraim, I’ll make sure everything will be alright with me around.” and with that, Lyon stood and left the room, Ephraim followed. 

When Ephraim went out of the room, his eyes looked over to the familiar manakete in front of him; Myrrh. “Ephraim, I wish to speak with you for a moment, its important..” she said, having a serious tone in her voice. “Lyon is the one that I sense darkness from, are you truly certain to let him in out army?” She asked him, she finally felt where the darkness was coming from and her tone made it certain she was right. 

“Myrrh…” Ephraim tried to find the words he was supposed to say, “I don’t want to assume that Lyon is going to destroy us. I just wish to trust him, at least for a moment. I hope you can understand” He knew it was a risk to do such a thing, but he wanted to try and trust his friend, it was the least he could do. 

Myrrh nodded “Just please keep your trust low, and make sure to not make Lyon make any bad choices in our army.” she was going to say something else, but decided to stay quiet, she felt that it wasn’t the right time to say to Ephraim. With that, she went away.

“Lyon, I hope what she’s saying isn’t true” Ephraim muttered to himself “I hope you truly wish to help us”


	3. Into the Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the slow update, I hope you love this regardless <3

Lyon had ended up hearing Myrrh’s worries, and her warnings that she told Ephraim; he decided to hide behind a wall while he overheard the conversation that happened. He heard that she sensed darkness within his own being, he didn’t want to admit it, but she was right. 

Once the conversation between his friend and the manakete was finished he had noticed that Ephraim had went to go and do something. Lyon slowly walked back to his room, hoping that neither Ephraim nor Myrrh would notice him. He needed to make sure that he could keep himself in his bedroom and make sure that he wouldn’t have Knoll find out his other motivations.

As he was walking, he showed a surprise look on his face as he heard Myrrh heading his way. Hearing the light, slightly quiet steps of the small girl from around the other corner, he stumbled for a moment trying to figure out what he should do.

Due to caution, he hid behind the same wall that he just hid behind, he knew that Myrrh would easily be able to see him when she turned around. He had just hoped she wouldn’t mind and pass by with no confrontation, he might’ve looked suspicious but as long as Ephraim didn’t know or act suspicious; he felt like he would be safe.

He heard the steps becoming more clear and louder, they were still quiet sounding steps due to the size of Myrrh’s feet, but they were fast; Lyon looked over behind the corner again, seeing the small winged figure of the dragon heading his way. He took a quiet breath and went around the corner to walk to his room just to not look suspicious around her.

Myrrh passed by Lyon, he caught a glimpse of her watching him for a moment, her wings were out as if she were about to fly off and her expression showed slight concern. It looked like she was trying to confront the mage behind her, to talk to him and let him know what she felt.

When he thought he was going to not be confronted; Myrrh suddenly stood in front of him, she was short so she used her wings to levitate so she could face him. He looked down at the tile he stood on, feeling a little unsure of what to say or what she was going to say to him.

“Prince Lyon,” She asked trying to get his attention, he looked up again, seeing her magenta eyes showing a serious look before she spoke again. “I would like to let you know that Ephraim is really concerned for your health, and he was staying up late last night just to hope you would wake up. I really hope you are okay..” She expressed concern in her voice,

“However, I sense darkness within your soul, and I don’t want to risk getting him hurt.” She said, her eyes closed, and her hands clasped together; “I just wanted to let you know before you do something bad to Ephraim.. I know you have darkness within your soul, eating your heart until you slowly die.”

All Lyon could do was nod, not really feeling the guilt or the questioning of himself from what Myrrh had told him. He just wanted to get away and hide himself for the day; he stood there, no words spoke from his mouth, his face blank not knowing what to express, and just hoping that the manakete in front of him would go away.

Myrrh sighed, finally landing on the ground; “I do hope you understand, Prince Lyon” she said, before turning away and leaving the sight of the prince’s tired eyes. Lyon took a moment to process what the girl just said to him; he knew exactly what she meant, after all the demon king was slowly devouring him and he knew full well he was going to die eventually.

Lyon then huffed a sigh of relief before then grabbing the cold metal handle of his door, and disappearing into the dark room. Forgetting to lock the door after entering before sitting down on his chair the still messy desk writing once again to take note of the day. 

* * *

Evening then came in a blur to the mage prince; and Ephraim was gone for the majority of the day. So he decided to clean up those random scattered papers in his bedroom and crumpled them all up into a random container. He didn’t really pay attention to what he was doing, his mind was full of different thoughts conflicting the thoughts of Formortiis, who was still, very slowly still eating his heart.

It was then that Ephraim then knocked on the wooden door that lead to Lyon’s bedroom, Lyon looked up to see who it was. “Ah Ephraim,” He greeted showing a small smile, “Was there something you needed to tell me” He then asked, seeing the serious look that was shown his teal haired friend. 

“Lyon, I need to ask you something, Myrrh had notified me that she sensed darkness within you.” His voice was said as if he didn’t want to believe what the manakete had said. 

“Do you truly wish to join our cause? Even when the dark stone is still in your grasp?” He then asked, he wanted to make sure that Lyon was truly wanting to go on his side. He didn’t bother to ask about Vigarde turning to dust because he just assumed that it was not the doing of his friend. 

“Yeah, I overheard it after I left for a moment to grab something,” He replied “And I wish to be on your side, my father is dead and there’s nothing I need to do” that was a lie, and he was sure Ephraim knew, but he tried to sound genuine. After all, he wanted to see Ephraim happy for him once more. 

Ephraim didn’t look to reassured, his azure eyes were facing away from Lyon as if he wasn’t believing anything that he was saying. He wanted to trust him, but he was not sure if it would just be wasted. 

“I know you told me that it wasn’t you who said those words to me about your plans the other day…” he said, his voice sounding as if he was questioning even himself; “But I’m just worried, what if the demon king possesses you again? and you end up destroying the other sacred stones, like Knoll told me you did with Grado’s stone..” 

Then that made Lyon remember something, he remembered that he commanded Grado generals to take Jehanna Hall and get their sacred stone. He didn’t want to tell Ephraim about that, because he didn’t want him to already lose the little amount of trust that he was given. 

“Trust me, Ephraim.” he tried to reassure him once again. Although his voice ended up sounding harsh like something his friend said got him infuriated. Looking into the eyes of the man in front of him, his face showing a more serious look. 

Lyon grabbed Ephraim’s hand before speaking once more, “I know you’re cautious about the demon king coming back, but that’s not the Ephraim I once knew..” no matter how much he tried to convince his friend, he could tell from the look on his face that it would be no use.

Ephraim forcefully lets go of Lyon’s soft, pale hands, trying his hardest not to let himself get too angry. “I can trust you Lyon, I _do_ trust you.” He said, “But i just want you to prove to me that I can trust you, I know you’ve shown your trust but I want to know that I am able to fully trust you” 

Lyon took a deep breath, “Yes, Ephraim,” he said. “But you wanted to make sure that I am truly wishing to join you, and the answer is yes.” he looked away from his friend, “That is my answer, by doing so you trust me enough..” his voice was meek but he truly meant it to sound like that. 

Ephraim didn’t say anything after that, he didn’t know what else he could say, and so silence engulfed once more between the two prince’s. Lyon closed his eyes for a moment, thinking if what he was planning to say next will probably hurt Ephraim in some way

“Ephraim,” Lyon said, opening his eyes, “Myrrh confronted me after you left, she told me she senses darkness in my soul, I know what she means, the dark stone is still in my grasp.” He took a deep breath and continued again “She also warned me that I might end up hurting you.. But I promise you my friend, I won’t hurt you…” He sounded genuine, and it looked like Ephraim was reassured, he felt the tense presence from his friend leave. 

“I guess Myrrh really is worried for me,” Ephraim remarked with a small chuckle, he smiled a little. Before then having a more serious look shown on his face. “I assure you that Myrrh is just looking out for me” He said. 

Lyon tried to get the event of Myrrh confronting him out of his head for just a moment, he always felt worried around the Manakete. Especially knowing that she is a dragon from the Darkling Woods —most of the dragons in Magvel are for that matter. 

“Please don’t feel stressed about her” Ephraim said, the way his tone was felt like he read his own mind. But it wasn’t possible for that to happen, Lyon always kept his thoughts to himself and away from his friends. He assumed that Ephraim must have found out that he was nervous around Myrrh from how stressed out he looked. 

Lyon ended up taking a moment to calm down, he knew he felt stressed, but that was because he never knew how to feel around dragons. He had a plan to go to the darkling woods set in his mind, yet since he ended up passing out it ended up messing with his plan. The least he could do now was to join Ephraim’s army for a moment, just to see Eirika again. 

“I’m alright now, my friend” he finally answered, feeling much better than how he felt beforehand. “I promise that I won’t be so cautious around her..” he looked Ephraim in the eye showing that he was being truthful about it. 

Ephraim looked out the small window of the mage’s room; seeing that the sky was now a mixture of orange and deep purple, the sun was setting now; and night was falling. So he huffed a breath, getting up. 

“I should leave now, I don’t want to bother you with your sleep.” Ephraim said, turning to the door, “I hope you have a goodnight, my friend.” he smiled before then leaving Lyon’s room and disappearing for the night.s

Lyon sighed smiling a little, before then getting into a faded lilac nightgown and then sitting down on his desk, hopefully making sure that neither Myrrh nor his own friend Knoll could confront him. He had a job to do, and he needed Ephraim to be with him with this plan, Grado was still in his grasp after all. 

“Oh Myrrh,” he spoke to himself“You worry over Ephraim so much, but I am sure you won’t bother him whenever im not around” he looked at his journal. Looking over the past few days, seeing his entries regarding Ephraim and his plan to get Renais’s sacred stone. 

‘Soon it will be time for Jehanna hall to fall’ he thought, knowing that Ephraim will do anything to save Eirika. 

“Soon I will see her again” 


End file.
